The present disclosure herein relates to a Direct Current-to-Direct Current (DC-DC) converter having multi-output terminals, and more particularly, to a DC-DC converter driving device and a method for driving a DC-DC converter using the same.
A DC-DC converter steps up or steps down a direct current input voltage to generate a DC output voltage necessary for a load. The load may include various electronic devices such as a computer or a mobile device. Such electronic devices may include elements for performing various functions. The various elements included in the electronic devices may have different operation voltages. Accordingly, there is a demand for a multi-output DC-DC converter capable of generating various output voltages in one DC-DC converter.
A multi-output DC-DC converter may include a plurality of voltage output terminals in order to generate various output voltages. The plurality of voltage output terminals may output DC output voltages of different voltage levels. The plurality of voltage output terminals are required to output accurate voltage levels required by a load despite of any external factors. For example, an abrupt change in load connected to the plurality of voltage output terminals may be one factor disturbing output of an accurate voltage.
A Single-Inductor Multi-Output (SIMO) DC-DC converter is advantageous in that it is implementable with a lower cost and a smaller area than a Multi-Inductor Multi-Output (MIMO) converter. However, the SIMO DC-DC converter shares a single inductor, and thus interference may occur between output terminals according to a charged or discharged state of the inductor. Accordingly, it is necessary to secure stability and accuracy of output voltages of the SIMO DC-DC converter.